Internet Sites

Updated:  March 4, 2009 (Posted new address for Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site.)

Sites containing information concerning POWs of the Japanese:

• American Battle Monuments Commission  This link goes directly to the ABMC page used to search for a World War II POW by name.  Enter the last name first and DO NOT use any commas.  If you do not find the POW listed, it may be because the name is not listed as you typed it.  Try leaving out the middle name or initial, and if necessary, change the spelling to a similar name spelled slightly differently.  Names are in the database as they were recorded after World War II and they may not be 100% correct according to family records.  Click here - ABMC - to get the main American Battle Monuments Commission web site.
• American Defenders Of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) Web Site  This site has a vast amount of information.  Try using the "Pico Search" feature that you will find close to the bottom of the main page to find information on a specific subject.
• American Ex-Prisoners of War Organization  This site contains a wide variety of information that can be of assistance to former POWS and to their family members.  See the main page of information about membership and services available.
• Bataan Commemorative Research Project This excellent site by the Proviso East High School, IL gives information about the 192nd Tank Bn. including rosters of members of that unit.
• Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico, Inc.  This site and the memorial (which was dedicated on April 7, 2002) are in honor of the men of the 200th and 515th CA (AA) Regiments.  The site includes a list of the men in those two regiments.
• Battling Bastards of Bataan  The home page of this site contains a photo of the Camp O'Donnell Memorial Monument in Capas, Tarlac, PI.
• Burma Thailand Railway This site includes information about the Burma Thailand Railway (also known as the Thailand-Burma Railway, the Burma Railway or the Death Railway).  Look in the left column and click on "Camp Lists" to get a complete list of POW camps along the 415-Km route of the railway.  See Thailand Burma Railway for another site on this subject.  Roger Mansell's "Center for Research, Allied POWs under the Japanese" (listed after this) also has a list of of the POW camps on the railway - see his Death Railway link.
• Center for Research, Allied POWs under the Japanese  Roger Mansell has information related to Japanese POW Camps throughout the Far East - including photos and links to other web pages.  To get a complete list of POW Camps, begin your visit to this site by clicking on the word "links" in the first sentence of the first box.  Then check out other parts of this site as your interests take you.
• China Marines - Fourth Marines Band  Follow the links close to the bottom on the main page for much more information.  This site complements the site below labeled "Fourth Marine Regiment."
• C.O.F.E.P.O.W. The initials stand for "Children (& families) of Far East Prisoners of War."  This site is an excellent resource for information concerning British, Australian, New Zealand and Dutch POWs of the Japanese.  Note also the "FEPOW Community" and "Researching FEPOW History" sites listed below.
• Corregidor  This site has much information about Corregidor and the related island forts involved in the defensive plan for Manila Bay.
• FEPOW Community  This British site, and the links it provides, will be of assistance to many people searching for information about a British, Australian, New Zealand or Netherlands POW of the Japanese.  Note also the "C.O.F.E.P.O.W." site listed above and the "Researching FEPOW History" site listed below.
• Fourth Marine Regiment  Use this site for information about the 4th Marines from before World War II, to Corregidor and through their time as POWs.
• Fourth Marines Site by Jack Turner  This site includes several rosters that give the status of members of the 4th Marines as well as links to other items of interest concerning the 4th Marine Regiment.
• Fukuoka #17  This excellent web site was started in 2002 as a Lewiston, Idaho school project.  It has been expanded into a large and very informative web site by Linda Dahl.  Linda was the school librarian, but has now moved on to City Librarian and continues to "grow" the web site as a labor of love.  The site includes a roster of POWs at Fukuoka #17 (Omuta).
• Index to Roper Research Materials  Anyone planning a trip to the National Archives should review Dick Roper's "List of Records in Numerical Order" and his "Diaries, Official Record & Press Releases" before leaving home.  You can make notes about the Box Numbers that contain information you want to see.  This should make your visit to the National Archives more efficient and more productive.
• Manila American Cemetery and Memorial  This link is to a ".pdf" file that requires Acrobat Reader (free) to download.  It is a large file, but it is worth the effort.  There is a complete description of the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial including photos, drawings and the text of inscriptions.
• Mark Kelso's Oryoku Maru Web Site  Mark Kelso constructed this page as a memorial to his Grandfather, Lt. Walter A. Kelso, Jr.  It contains very detailed descriptions of the voyage that began at Manila on December 13, 1944 when 1,619 POWs were loaded into the cargo holds of the Oryoku Maru and ended at Moji, Kyushu, Japan on January 30, 1945 when about 400 survivors were unloaded from the holds of the Brazil Maru.  What happened during that series of voyages is the also subject of several books listed in the "Publications" page of this web site.
• Montevideo Maru Foundation This web page is being established to help increase public awareness of "Australia’s Greatest Maritime Disaster" (the sinking of the Montevideo Maru on July 1, 1942 northwest of Cape Bojeador, Luzon by the USS Sturgeon resulting in the death of all 1,053 POWs on board) and garner support for a search to locate the wreck where so many Australian men lie forgotten.
• Mukden Prisoner Of War Remembrance Society (MPOWRS)
  This relatively new site (as of June 2008) is devoted to POWs that were in camps in the Mukden area.  It has information about the new Mukden Allied Prisoners of War Camp Memorial Museum.  As of June 2008, this site is still being developed, so you may want to check back to see new additions.
• Museum of Japanese Merchant Ships  This Japanese language site contains photographs and paintings of a number of Japanese merchant ships that were sunk.  This index page will take you to lists of ships that were lost in a particular year.  In the center of each line you will see a two-digit number in the midst of the Japanese characters.  The line with "16" in it leads to a page with ships lost in 1941.  Likewise, "17" is for 1942, "18" is for 1943, "19" is for 1944 and "20" is for 1945.  The entries for "18" (1943) and "19" (1944) are subdivided.  "1-6" and "7-12" indicate the first and last six months of 1943.  Similarly, "19" (1944) is divided into quarters.  By knowing when a ship was lost, you can find the image.  For instance, the Oryoku Maru was attacked on December 14 and 15, 1944.  Click the line containing "19" and "10-12" on the index page to get a page with "thumbnail" photos of ships lost in Oct-Dec, 1944.  The photos have a caption with a four-digit number giving the month and day the ship was lost.  Click the caption with "1214" to get the painting of the Oryoku Maru.  The URL address will also display the ship's name but it may be misspelled in English.  If you want to read the Japanese wording, several free on-line translators can give a very rough translation.  I think it may be best to leave the translation to the experts.
• National Archives (NARA) Access to the Archival Database (AAD)  This link goes directly to the "Fielded Search" page for the World War II Prisoners of War Data File.  Click the following link for information that is designed to assist you in navigating this site.  It may help to make a copy of this information to use when you search on the NARA AAD site.  NARA Information
  In November 2006, NARA posted another database that is supplementary to their World War II Prisoners of War Data File.  This database was developed by a team of volunteers, each of whom is a descendant of a POW of the Japanese, working on behalf of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.  It provides information about the military unit of POWs prior to their surrender and gives additional information about POW camps when that information was available.  Click on Military Units to see the "Fielded Search" page for this database.  It is in the same format as the World War II Prisoners of War Data File, so the same instructions apply.
  To get the main AAD page so you can search a different file, click this link - http://aad.archives.gov/aad/index.jsp.
• National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO   Use this site to obtain military records of a veteran or to obtain awards and decorations (medals).  Necessary instructions are on the main page of this web site.
• New Zealand Military History  This site may be of assistance to people searching for information about New Zealand POWs of the Japanese.
• North China Marines  This site has a lot of information for anyone interested in the "North China Marines."
• Oryoku Maru On-line  This excellent site has an account of the Oryoku Maru/Enoura Maru/Brazil Maru series of voyages and related information.
• Philippine Scouts Heritage Society  This site has many articles containing information about the men and the units of the Philippine Scouts.
• POW Research Network Japan  This site was set up to provide histories of POW Camps in Japan.  It includes records of POWs from the United States, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and Pakistan that were buried in Japan or whose cremations are memorialized there.  To find the cause of death of a POW that died in a camp in Japan, open the site, click on "The Record of Deceased POWs", on the next page click on "List by Camp" and on the next page click on "Open" to the right of the camp name.  The file is large and the printing is small, but there is a magnifying feature on the tool that will allow you to increase the size to make easy reading.
• POW/INTERNMENT CAMPS IN ASIA DURING WWII  This interesting site allows people to register names associated with various POW Camps and Internment Camps and contact others that are registered.
• POWs of the Japanese  Jim Erickson is constructing this site.  Already it has much valuable information about the Hellships, including rosters, and Jim will be adding more.  For those that do not know Jim Erickson, I will just say that he does outstanding research and you can rely on the information he posts.
• Researching FEPOW History  This site is located in the UK and has the aim of organizing bi-annual conferences to aid those who are researching the experiences of ex-Far Eastern prisoners of war or internees.  The links contained on this site will help persons looking for information concerning UK POWs of the Japanese.  Note also the "C.O.F.E.P.O.W." and "FEPOW Community" sites listed above.
• Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society  This site has information on POW Camps on Taiwan (Formosa).
• Thailand Burma Railway - see "Burma Thailand Railway" above.
• The Fall of the Philippines  This site contains the text of "The Fall of the Philippines" by Louis Morton.  It is part of a series of books produced by the U.S. Army Center of Military History.  After you enter this site, you can move to the portion of interest to you by clicking on a chapter or a section within a chapter.
• US-Japan Dialogue on POWs  This bilingual website is an effort to recognize the sacrifice of American POWs captured by the Japanese military during WWII. It also seeks to promote dialogue between people of the United States and Japan on related issues.   
• Wes Injerd's Web Site on POW Camps in Japan  This site has a vast amount of information about POW Camps in Japan plus links to other related information.  Wes recently (February 3, 2003) informed me that Robert S. LaForte has donated his entire collection of over 800 volumes and over 200 interviews of POWs of Japan to the University of North Texas Archives.  Wes has posted a link to a list of these volumes on page 8 of this web site.  You can go directly to the list by clicking on LaForte.  Wes just informed me (02/12/2003) that he has posted a chart showing the history of all POW Camps in Japan.  To see that site, click CHART.